Freewill

Rating:
Summary: SUSTAINED BRILLIANCE
Review: This is the best book I've read in a year. I didn't expect to like it, but once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. It is quirky, odd, but so real. Lynch captures relationships and thought processes in a gut level way. Don't miss this one!

Rating:
Summary: You can probably do without this book
Review: You pick up the new book by Chris Lynch, an author you like even though he usually writes books dealing with sports, and you don't like sports. As you read the first couple sentences, you notice it's written in the second person. You decide to give it a try, no matter that you find second person narration artificial and a little pretentious. You read about a teen named Will who has lost his father and stepmother in an accident that might not have been an accident. Will goes to a special school, you come to understand, because he didn't take their deaths well. You really don't like Will or his Grandparents who are ineffectual. To you they seem like scenery that wrings its hands a lot. You do like his sometimes friend Angela who might be a lesbian since she insists she doesn't date boys. You also like some of the sprung-from-teen-angst observations and wisdom, but you find the slim plot about a string of teen suicides a bit clichéd. You are confused when Will starts blaming himself for the suicides. Your confusion is compounded when some of the adults seem to blame him too. You actually spend a few moments wondering if you are just not a skilled enough reader to understand this literary experiment. After finishing the book, you decide that's not the case. You're smart enough, and this is just a choose your own adventure without the fun of the choices.